


summer's never coming again

by apricaught



Category: EXO (Band), IU (Musician)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Mafia EXO, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-22
Updated: 2019-06-22
Packaged: 2020-05-16 06:00:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,550
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19312075
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/apricaught/pseuds/apricaught
Summary: he asked her every day if she loved him, and she always said yes.he couldn't help but think; peter constantly told jesus that he loved him and still denied him three times in the end.





	summer's never coming again

Her eyes feel like they are burning into his skin.

Before he met Jieun, they always told him that when her gaze landed, every hair on their neck would stand on end and shivers would run through spines. She stared and blinked, and the shivers ran indeed.

They are so close to each other they can see every little freckle and glimmer of light in their eyes. Jieun is so close she can almost see his brain, brimming with everything she loves about him, and with things that he should not know. It's because she's in love with him, and she is completely in love with his mind. Some things are inexcusable, some are blissfully ignored, because love gives him a free pass, as it often does. A particularly loud voice echoes something deafeningly in her head; she blocks it out, at least for the time being.

 

"I love you," she whispers as slim legs curl around his waist, lips gentle like rose petals, planting soft kisses down his jawbone. He does not say anything, wanting desperately to respond. The silence is all too loud and comforting all at once. And she doesn't want him to say anything, because she's too afraid of what words will come out of that beautiful mouth of his. Variations of the three words are spoken every day, constantly, yet something is always different. Tonight, her voice is raw and tired. The words sound strained.

 

"I love you," her voice catches, muffled into his shoulder as she pushes him towards his bed, the wooden frame creaking as the two collapse onto it. Jieun winds her fingers through his desperately. He always tells her that her small hands feel like ice, that her being was a blizzard. Her ice melts instantly as it comes in contact with him. His hands are warm, because, unlike her, he's full of life. He's bright and lively and he has a light in his eyes that never seemed to exist in hers.

 

"I love you," her voice is a wisp of air, easy to miss, and she looks into his eyes so very deeply, as if she'll lose him if she looks away. His warm hands are firmly planted on her hips. She thinks of the first mission together, and remembers him gingerly holding her behind him in the same way. They were so careful, so afraid of what the world would bestow upon them. His long lashes blink over brown eyes, like feathers of a raven flying above dark soil just kissed by the rain. He's staring, but she doesn't want to avert her eyes: they stay frozen in time. For the first time, she realizes, his eyes reflect the same thing that she feels for him. They don't look at each other as often as they think the do, because they're constantly in motion. But in a single, frozen moment, they feel the same thing. Endless, overflowing love. The kind that one couldn't simply keep hidden inside of them, the kind that manifested itself in everything they did.

 

Lust is harsh and abrasive as it tries desperately to push through the delicate film of the pure love that keeps the two of them together. It kicks and pushes, trying desperately to ruin them. Jieun thinks that it's failing, but can't help but notice how the love they've put together is strained and falling apart at its hastily woven seams. It makes her wonder about the type of love they have. If it is as real as they think it is. 

 

"I love you." The words stain her tongue, poison seeping through her veins. Over and over again, the three words are a lethal poison. Her back arches as he wraps his arms around her to steady her, and she gasps with pleasure. The sheer fabric of love is threatening to tear. They've been trying to hold it together, to patch it up. She can't tell if love is an easy fix, something that can be easily redone.

 

" I..." Tears well in her eyes, and she cannot bring herself to finish her sentence.

 

"I love you," he finally breathes in response, in a beautiful, rasping voice. His voice is worn and soft, as is everything about him. His voice blankets her completely; it’s the warmth of a furnace when everything has been coated in a fine dusting of snow, but Jieun is scared of fire. Fire burns without even touching it, it sears without contact. She does not like how it stings and burns those who come near it, and does not like the thought of fire sputtering out into ash. Maybe, she thinks, that her hatred for fire comes from the fact that it's terrifyingly temporary.

 

Baekhyun wants to know why she's crying, why the porcelain girl who is strong in every aspect is breaking to shards in front of him.

 

"I- I love-," she pauses, streams of tears racing down ruddy cheeks so incredibly fast that he wonders what exactly they are running from. Jieun’s lips are met with a salty kiss from the other, one of desperation. Of finality.

 

The girl cannot bring any thoughts to her brain, her words start to slur together, his face is blurring in front of her. Jieun cannot see him anymore, she can't pinpoint the features that she loves so much, and she is blubbering with sobs. Jieun grabs for him, wanting to hold him in her arms, to hold him there forever.

 

Perhaps it’s all a strange, strange dream. Baekhyun remembers their first mission as clear as anything.

 

_The two stood outside the casino, the soft music pulsing and excited yells of people that could become rich by the end of the night punctuated the darkness. Baekhyun and Jieun leaned against the cinder block wall outside the building, unassuming in black attire tailored to their slender bodies. Baekhyun had been assigned a murder mission all of a sudden, though all he ever did was hack computers in the past. Jieun didn't seem to like him. At all._

_You couldn't say the same for Baekhyun, obsessed with her since the moment she first looked up at him suspiciously, close to threatening him with a knife._

_“Maybe we should turn this corner then burst in. We like dramatic entrances, right? Or-or maybe we could crawl under the tables to the guy. Where does he usually sit? Does he gamble a lot? According to his records, he's just plain rich so maybe not. Or maybe-” Baekhyun was too enthusiastic. What the fuck was there to be excited about, anyway? She glared at him as he talked. It was before he realized that Lee Jieun was a ticking timebomb._

_He was cut off as he heard footsteps approaching. Jieun signaled something mostly unidentifiable to him with her eyes before smiling a saccharine grin. She leaned closer and closer in to Baekhyun, pushing him against the wall and pressing her lips to his. Baekhyun’s pulse skyrocketed and his ears rang with every warning bell fathomable- his eyes widened but he kissed her back, hands clasping around her waist. Jieun broke the kiss and put her mouth by his ear. She was breathless._

_“Don’t get any ideas, hacker boy. Our guy is at the doorway of the casino right now, if we run in about a minute we could meet him at the end of the street.” The jovial man in the doorway turned and almost caught Baekhyun’s eyes, so he pulled the girl back with him into the shadows. She looked in the opposite direction frantically to see if their man was still there, but Baekhyun’s eyes were still frozen on her. Jieun looked back at him, her brows furrowed._

_“That… kiss- it didn’t mean anything, okay? I was just trying to go unnoticed,” she whispered, her eyes piercing. Baekhyun nodded numbly. He didn’t move, stuck in place. Jieun shifted uncomfortably; his hands were still pressed tightly on her waist._

_“Byun Baekhyun,” she hissed quietly, her speech muffled as she had pulled her mask back over her lips. “Take your filthy hands off of me. I have five knives hidden under my clothes. They're pressing into my skin.”_

_And he moved apologetically. They ended up killing the man from the doorway, the majority of the work done by Jieun. Later that night, Baekhyun helped dress her wounds and Jieun kissed him, voluntarily this time._

_It felt like magic._

 

Something draws back to him from his flashback. Knives. Jieun had knives hidden under her clothes then. Baekhyun's mind was running faster than he could process, and he doesn't want to believe his own brain. But in a whirlwind romance with no rationality, rhyme, or reason, his mind has always been a voice screaming into a void. His mind is wired for computers and sensibility. It tells him that Jieun isn't someone trustworthy. She's secretive and terrifying. So his hands fall under her shirt, roaming her firm navel, when his fingers trace a shape hidden under the flimsy material of her clothes. It’s sharp, pointed at the end. He knows what it is before he feels all of it, before he sees it.

 

" Jieun.” Baekhyun’s voice wavers. Tears start to fall down his own face. 

 

He should've known earlier. He should have seen the signs. He was blinded-- blinded by her, too obsessed with her whole being to even sense it. And it wasn't that he didn't know. He knew, and carefully ignored it. He tiptoes around it, avoids the thought. Ignorance is bliss, after all.

"I love you'" he says quietly, after moments of peaceful silence, his slender fingers frozen on her waist.

 

Jieun’s heart breaks in every way she thinks is possible. It shatters, the pain is unbearable. Pieces of it are strewn everywhere. It is chaotic, haphazard. Baekhyun is not an idiot, she knows he has figured everything out. She watches as gears turn in his head, placing events into a sequence.

 

She inhaled softly, her fingers clutching his hair.  Anything to keep her rooted. It would kill her to do something against  him, but it's what she has to do. There were no questions.

_Baekhyun betrayed her trust. Their trust. Baekhyun is a traitor, Baekhyun is a liar, Baekhyun should be nothing to her._

She has to. Jieun doesn't know who is whispering this in her ear, but the voice is cool and composed. Rational, which she is not.

 

"I love you," her voice is soft and uncertain. “Don't remember this moment. Remember the good things. Like last summer. Remember last summer? It was warm then. It's cold right now, Baekhyun. I know you don't like the cold. Remember the missions and the beach and palm trees.” Jieun is shaking, her voice is dwindling. She knows that summer is never coming again. She kisses him, kisses him everywhere. Lips meet lips, and skin.

 

Her eyes meet his, and she hopes with every fiber of herself that he will do something to stop her.

 

Melting chocolate eyes that stare back at the strong woman who has, in a moment, become a helpless girl, are not curious or angry. They are tender and resigned. Jieun can't believe that he'll still love her. She wants him to hate her, to scorn her and damn her forever. But the man she is looking at still looks so fucking in love. 

 

He knows that it's going to happen, he's been counting down the days. It is the price he has to pay, and his lover is the tax collector. He wraps his arms around her tighter, holds her closer.

 

" I love you. I love you. I love you." The innocent words become a chant, a prayer. A plea.

Something slips from Jieun’s grip, it falls to the bed. She grabs a hold of it, clutching it so tight her fingers bleed.

 

"Baekhyun, I want to see you again after today.”

 

“ Come with me then, please,” he begs, his face wet with her tears and his tears.

 

“I- I can't,” she murmurs. “They need me. He needs me.”

 

“Jieun, he doesn't need you. He has a million people like you to do his bidding. Jieun, look at me.” Her face is pained. “He does not care about you. You're his pet, his plaything. You're replaceable to him. Do you want to live your whole life like this?” Anger swells in Jieun’s eyes, hurt so evident that it frightens him.

 

“He loves me,” she says adamantly.

 

“I know,” his voice is gentle. “And I love you.”

 

“I know,” she whispers.

 

The light glints off of the sharp knife in the moonlit darkness. In that moment, it seems almost angelic.

 

"I love you."

 

Her lips meet his for the last time. They cry again, they cry and cry until they don't know if there's any water left in them. Jieun gazes at him, and it occurs to her again that he is beautiful. His body is sculpted by gods. His face is of the finest porcelain, his hair is the finest thing spun by angels. His lips are full and red, pomegranates of Hades. Pomegranates are the fruit of the dead, but he is the only person she has to live for.   

 

"I love you, Baekhyun.” The words are simple habit now. It's been said so often that she doesn't know if it sounds like words to her anymore. Just a collection of syllables.Still, they are comfort. The weapon moves by itself, she's used it so much she's memorized where to stab, how to twist. She stabs him once. Scarlet blood seeps around him. It is all that is needed. He looks straight in her eyes, grabbing the hilt and twists the knife deeper in his own chest.

 

A wail shatters the peaceful quiet.

 

“It's okay, it's okay Jieun,” his voice is fading. She shakes her head. Her mind is blank. Why is he comforting her? Nothing is going according to plan. The room is spinning. Her ears ring with a million sirens and the bed feels like it's turned upside down. A labored breath leaves his mouth. He squeezes her hand, tightly. “He told you to let me suffer, huh? Tell the bastard he- he's lucky. To have you.”

"Love you," she repeats blankly, watching the warm light drain from his eyes, feeling life fade from each of his fingers, still intertwined with hers.

 

Cold. Everything goes cold, but tears on his cheeks are still warm. It's no consolation.

 

 

"Jieun. My sweet lark, sing to me,” a voice croons smoothly in her ear. It's the same voice that she's been hearing the whole night, and she wonders if anything she heard herself say that night was her at all. His voice is soft and familiar.

 

“Boss, I… did it.” A dry, disbelieving sob rocks through her body. She's shivering, her body is feverishly hot. The room is still spinning.

 

“Good, just like I told you to. He did it to himself. You did nothing, robin of mine.”

 

“I killed him.” The words are heavy, bringing her back to the present. 

 

“No, baby, he killed himself. You did real good, little bird.” The words are dry and empty and she grasps to find warmth in them.

 

Jieun closes her eyes, and sleeps beside him. It's a long, dreamless sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> in the process of transferring works from aff. hope you guys liked it! in case there's any confusion, here's a little overview of the backstory i had in mind. jieun was orphaned at a very young age, and was taken in by the head of this notorious mafia. she was raised by them, and also learned to kill and go on missions very efficiently. she also befriended the son of the mafia boss and he feels incredibly close and protective of her. enter baekhyun- who was only taken in to take care of technical stuff/hacking/etc. he did this for a while before he eventually worked himself up to simple missions, in which he met jieun. jieun and baekhyun fell head over heels in love with each other to the point where they can't think of anyone or anything else. one day, when baekhyun is working with computers, he finds incredibly valuable, top secret information about a rival gang that he absolutely should not know. rather than telling it to higher-ups, he keeps the information to himself and gradually lets guilt take over him. his actions are figured out eventually, and he's marked as a traitor by the new mafia boss (the son of the former, also the one who is close with jieun). in some sort of messed up revenge plot, he assigns jieun on a 'special mission' to kill baekhyun because of his traiterous actions.


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